Family Matters
by thesunwillshineclear
Summary: In which Sigrid is very much an older sister and lots of fighting and healing happens. Movieverse. Two-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Sadly, in no way, shape, or form will I ever own The Hobbit or Peter Jackson's movies.**

**A/N: I'm taking some creative liberty with Bard's kids' ages. Sigrid is 15, Bain is 13, and Tilda is 10. Also this is my first fic in this fandom and constructive criticism is always welcome. Enjoy!**

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Da hadn't come home after sunset even after he told Bain to hide the black arrow and hide himself. He'd been gone yesterday for longer and had come back with fourteen dwarves, one of them being beardless. Sigrid had no idea what kind of trouble her Da could get into if he stayed out any longer.

In short, Sigrid was worried to the point of frantic. But, of course, being the eldest of her siblings, she had to stay calm around them and the dwarves.

And one of the dwarves was staying in their house with a few of his kin because he was extremely sick. Another left a little bit ago to find some kingsfoil to help him get better. Odd, though, she thought it was only a weed used to feed the pigs.

Bain was now sitting with Tilda across the room from the dwarves, the dark haired one still releasing heart wrenching caterwauls.

She wished for him to be cured soon, the screams he was releasing were pain filled and painful to hear. She couldn't bear to see him in pain and it seemed his brother couldn't either. Sigrid helped in any way she could.

After boiling some water for the dwarves to use to help him, Kíli, she thought she heard them call him that, Sigrid stepped outside to investigate a creaking that could be their Da coming back home.

"Da, is that you?" She asked hopefully into the night with some trepidation.

Something dropped down right beside her on the stairs and she let loose a scream to rival Kíli's own when she saw the orc that was decidedly not her father.

It growled at her and made a strange rattling noise with its chest before lunging at her with its blade. Still screeching, Sigrid ran back inside and rammed the door closed onto its head and shoulder. She struggled to keep the door closed but it soon overpowered her. Sigrid looked around the house in a panic when she saw that there were orcs crashing in from the roof and the walls. Suddenly, they were everywhere. The Orc stepped menacingly through the door and shoved her onto the bench of their kitchen table before Sigrid could react properly.

The dwarves reacted faster than she ever could have and used anything on hand to fight back against the swarming orcs. The healer dwarf even threw a bunch of their pots and pans to keep back an offending beast.

Suddenly, the orc that had attacked Sigrid released a gurgling noise and she looked behind it to see an elf with fiery hair stabbing it with twin blades brandished skillfully in her hands. After the orc was disposed of, she continued to attack the others that were storming the house.

Another elf dropped out of the ceiling and started attacking the orcs. His blond hair whipped around his head as he moved about with a fierce grace similar to the she-elf's and with similar twin blades.

When an orc burst through a wall near Tilda, she reacted with a scream and threw a plate at the monster. _That's my girl_, thought Sigrid.

The blond dwarf tackled the same orc with a ferocity she hadn't seen before in a size his small.

Sigrid look frantically about the house for Bain and saw that he was holding his own with the dwarves' help.

After Sigrid searched for where her family was in this mess, she knocked over the bench she was laying on, crawled under the kitchen table and yelled for Tilda so they could stay in some relative safety in the chaos that was now their home.

Tilda scrambled under the table with her and barricaded the side with the bench. Sigrid wrapped herself around her little sister as the fight raged on around them.

A thump and more screaming filled the room when the orcs pulled Kíli off of the bed.

Sigrid could hear the screeches of the orcs and the swiping noises that preceded their deaths. The fight raged on for what seemed like forever but no time at all until one of the horrid creatures yelled something in its garbled language and the remaining orcs cleared out, some being cut down by the warriors in the house.

All the loud crashes slowly quieted and faded into the distance until all that was left was Kíli's pain filled grunting and struggling on the floor next to the table.

"Tauriel," the blond elf said, stopping at the door, before running off into the night to presumably hunt down the rest of the orcs.

Sigrid peered out from under the table and saw the fiery haired one called Tauriel conflicted as to follow her companion or to stay and help Kíli. Sigrid desperately hoped that she would stay and cure him, if anyone could do it, an elf could, she was sure of it.

Sigrid motioned to Tilda that it was alright to leave the safety of under the table and as they shuffled out, they were relieved to see Bain unharmed. Tilda rushed over to her brother and hugged him with all her might.

Sigrid felt a pair of eyes on her as she joined her siblings; she glanced around and saw the blond dwarf staring at her and her siblings with an unidentifiable emotion in his stormy blue eyes. He was helping to hold Kíli down as the healer explained that he didn't have very much time. Sigrid stared back at him in confusion until he broke eye contact first and his focus was on Kíli once more.

A moment later, the fiery elf warrior rushed back in with kingsfoil grasped in her hand and the dwarf with the funny hat on her heels.

Sigrid released her siblings from the crushing embrace as Tauriel announced to the room that she could save Kíli. Thank goodness, Sigrid was worried that she would leave them to fight for his life alone. But suddenly Tauriel sharply turned to the children of Bard with a request on her lips.

"I need a pot for mixing and more boiled water."

They didn't move for a moment, frozen in shock, until Tauriel got them moving with a commanding, "Now!"

The eldest daughter of Bard stumbled over to the cupboard to the pots and pans that weren't ruined by the fight with the orcs. She grabbed one of the only undamaged pots left, handed it to her sister, and searched for the other ingredients that Tauriel rattled off in her clipped tone.

Sigrid heard the other dwarves and Bain lift up the screaming Kíli and drag him onto the kitchen table, pillowing his head in the basket of walnuts. The blond dwarf climbed onto the table to hold down his brother while simultaneously comforting him, placing an arm across Kíli's chest

Sigrid handed the ingredients to Tauriel, and Tilda and her sister winced as Kíli let loose another blood curdling scream. Tauriel hurriedly tore the kingsfoil into the pot in Tilda's arms.

Tauriel paused for a moment, her sharp features softening for a moment as she looked at Sigrid and Tilda and whispered to them in a much more gentle, flowing voice, "Thank you both. You're good girls; your mother would be proud."

Sigrid's breath caught in her throat, but Tauriel only grabbed the concoction from the pot and brought it over to the struggling Kíli. Tilda looked to Sigrid with a distressed face, but Sigrid did not spare a glance back to her sister until Tauriel ordered for everyone to hold him down. Sigrid snapped out of her daze and yelled for her sister to hold down Kíli's leg with her. She saw that Bain was already helping the other dwarves.

Sigrid focused on holding Kíli's leg down and blocking out his painful cries as Tauriel smothered the kingsfoil across the festering wound. But through all his screams, she could hear Tauriel's voice floating throughout the room in her native tongue.

Looking back up to Kíli's face as his struggles decreased, Sigrid saw how he gazed up at Tauriel with confused adoration. She could also see how his brother stared at Tauriel with a skeptical intensity and protectively held Kíli tighter in his grip.

Tauriel's incantation, or spell or whatever it was that was healing Kíli, slowed down and ended with a soft Elvish word.

They all slowly let go of him and stepped away. Kíli only movement now was from his chest moving up and down with harsh breaths. Only Fíli and Tauriel remained by his side.

Sigrid turned away from what was sure to be a private discussion to her siblings. Bain and Tilda were standing still as if in shock. She smiled to herself for a moment and grabbed them both into a hug, Bain and Sigrid squishing Tilda between them. Her muffled voice spoke from where her head was against their chests.

"I am so glad the both of you are alright!"

Sigrid smiled into her brother's hair when he replied.

"Me too, Tilda, me too."

But Sigrid also heard some worry in his voice and realized both of their thoughts landed on their father and his well-being. Sigrid pulled her head away and shared a look with Bain. They decided they wouldn't tell Tilda that they didn't know where Da was until they had to.

All three of them pulled away from the embrace and Sigrid looked back to the table. Fíli was walking away with slumped but relieved shoulders towards the healer dwarf who talked with him about Elvish healing techniques. Tauriel began to bind Kíli's open but clean wound with an unspoiled cloth. Sigrid lifted her eyebrows in surprise, wondering about how in all of Middle Earth did that elf convince that dwarf to part from his brother's side. It seemed as if they were attached at the hip since they arrived at the house, especially since Kíli had been sick.

Sigrid decided she would talk with the blond one, first of all to get an answer to why he was watching her and her siblings earlier with an unidentifiable emotion on his face and then to ask whether or not he and Kíli were actually brothers. She was curious and just assumed with the way they acted around each other that they couldn't be anything besides brothers. But, according to looks, they were exact opposites.

Bain wrapped his arm around Tilda and led her to the other side of the room to sit down. Sigrid went over to where the blond and the healer stood and the one with the funny hat sat. Maybe she would actually learn their names this time around.

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**A/N: Hopefully I'll get the second chapter up sometime this week if it all works out, but thank you anyways if you got this far and please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter summary: In which Fíli and Sigrid talk about being older siblings while certain people tend to others.

A/N: Woah, I haven't updated since last year! I was bemoaning the fact that there were so few fics of Bard's family. This is here to fix that fact. I am dearly sorry to keep you waiting, here's the second and final part of this two-shot. Enjoy!

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Sigrid fiddled nervously at the hem of her sleeve as the blond dwarf glared at her in suspicion. It seemed that even the shortest warriors were just as intimidating as any other. But his eyes were tired as well, which Sigrid could understand if it really was his brother lying on the table so close to death not five minutes ago.

The dwarf in the floppy hat kept an eye on the table where Tauriel was tending to Kíli before bringing his attention back to Sigrid when she coughed nervously.

He introduced each of them. "I'm Bofur, Miss. Our other resident healer here is Óin and our resident worrywart is Fíli."

The blond one, Fíli, absent-mindedly scowled at the addition to his name without removing his eyes from his view of Kíli.

Sigrid was thankful for the politeness of the one with the floppy hat, Bofur now, she supposed, and introduced herself. "I am Sigrid, daughter of Bard. And those are my younger siblings, Bain and Tilda." She gestured over to her brother and sister sitting on the bed together.

Before a lull in the conversation could emerge, a small vibration in the house released some dust from the ceiling.

"Be glad they are here with you now, for it seems there may be some trouble in the mountain," the healer, Óin, spoke with a bit of foreboding.

Sigrid's perplexed face spurred Bofur to explain. "All of us have brothers or cousins or uncles in the company, and they're in the mountain at the moment. We worry; as you would do if it was your family. Actually, Fíli is he only one to still have a brother in this town."

Óin contributed to Bofur's explanation. "That would be the dwarf Tauriel is tending to. He's-"

"My brother. Kíli." Fíli abruptly cut him off.

Her guess was confirmed; after all, how could it not be? They were both obviously brothers, despite their differing appearances, with the care that they showed for each other. It reminded Sigrid of her own siblings. Although she was taken surprise when Fíli including himself in their conversation. He seemed perfectly content with watching his brother from a distance without adding a word.

"Well," Bofur said as he planted his hands on his thighs to push himself up, "I think it's best that we fix up some tea while we wait." But when Bofur attempted to stand, he wobbled and his face blanched. He put a hand to his head with a chuckle. "Maybe that Orc hit me harder than I thought."

Óin sighed and gruffly muttered something about hard-headed dwarves before tending to Bofur in the corner. Bofur took off his floppy hat with shaking hands and released something that was definitely _not_ a squeak of indignation when Óin prodded his head. Once the unique floppy hat was removed, Sigrid noticed he did have an awful scratch along his hairline at his temple.

She also realized her two buffers between her and the not so pleasant Fíli had exited their buffering positions and sat themselves a little farther away. She was left alone to deal with his mood, which obviously came from being excessively worried about his brother.

Sigrid desperately searched for a way to avoid an awkward silence, and her gaze landed on the surprisingly undamaged kettle. "I'll just... get a pot going then," she muttered to herself.

His eyes flickered to her and the tea she was busying herself with, and Sigrid decided she would be the grown up of the situation (as she usually was with her siblings when they squabbled) and have a civilized conversation with this stubborn dwarf, if only to distract him from his troubles for a moment.

"Why did you not stay with your brother?" Sigrid asked tentatively as she began to boil the water, inwardly cursing herself as she brought up what was probably the one thing troubling him the most.

Fíli's gaze drifted back to where it mostly had lain, on his brother. As he spoke to Sigrid once more, she could tell the majority of his focus was not on their conversation but on Kíli's well-being which rested in Tauriel's capable hands.

"I had wished to, however, Tauriel _explained_ to me that it was best for his health if he had a little more space and not someone crowding around his head. I just want to do what is best for him. So, I agreed to step away, but the second she finishes with those bandages, I will be at his side once more."

Once Fíli neared the end of his explanation, he rushed his words, and it was clear he realized that pouring out his troubles to a young girl who he barely knew might not have been the best idea.

Luckily for Fíli, Sigrid knew exactly what worries plagued him thanks to having to younger siblings herself. To ease what was probably an embarrassing moment for him, she spoke up again. "In their younger days, Tilda and Bain were prone to catching whatever illness that ran rampant in our town. Many a night I had been forced to sit at a distance from my younger siblings as they suffered from sickness. Our Da feared for my getting sick as well and left the healer to tend to them both as I kept the house standing and he continued working. Although he did not always follow his own instructions to keep away and the sickness passed to him eventually. But the point is, sometimes we must let someone else care for our loved ones and do what's best for them, forsaking our own needs for theirs."

Her worries for her father, and whether or not he was alright, were resurfaced by the memory. Her brow furrowed with concern while Fíli absorbed her words and recognized her as a fellow older sibling, a kindred spirit of sorts.

"You carry much responsibility on your shoulders for one so young." Fíli's voice broke through her anxiety.

"Being the oldest is a challenge, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world." Sigrid smiled wistfully as she saw Bain lightening Tilda's mood with one of his spur of the moment stories.

"Neither would I," Fíli said more to himself than to Sigrid. "Despite what a pain he can be at times."

Sigrid fondly remembered growing up with her family all well and whole together. It lasted only a few years before the precious family of five became four. She shook her head and rushed more recent memories to the forefront of her mind. And she suddenly remembered what else she was going to ask Fíli.

"Why in all of Middle Earth were you glaring at me and my siblings earlier?" Sigrid's harsh tone tore Fíli from what might have been a fond memory of his family, but she paid no heed. "After the attack, I mean. I was overwhelmingly glad we were all alright, and you had such a strange look on your face as you looked our way. You could have been taking care of your brother!"

Fíli's eyes flashed with a burning anger which was quickly smothered by - understanding? This dwarf was completely unlike any others she had met. He had a great control over his emotions, not loudly voicing his opinions as some did; and Sigrid was quite confused.

"It wasn't a glare, first of all." He recrossed his arms over his chest and looked down as if debating with himself before speaking in a low tone. "In all honesty, seeing you with your siblings, both well and whole after the attack, made me jealous. Ever since Kíli had been pierced by the arrow, I had been hoping beyond hope that it was just a scratch and wouldn't get any worse. But it did. And while I was desperately holding my brother to keep him in this life, you and your siblings rejoiced in yours."

Before Sigrid could collect her scattered thoughts into a comprehensible sentence, not that she could have at the time, a shrill whistle emitted from the tea kettle. She jolted and quickly covered her shame and misunderstanding of Fíli's actions with the busywork of preparing the tea.

As she stared into the dark depths of the kettle, she worried her thumb over one of the chipped teacups. Then Sigrid squashed down her pride and spoke up once more. "I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to question you so harshly when you were only thinking of the wellbeing of your brother." She rolled the teacup in her hand and smiled to herself. "I should know how that feels."

Sigrid peeked out of the corner of her eye and through her loosened strands of hair to see his reaction. Fíli had returned his gaze to its silent vigil of watching over Kíli from a distance. "It's alright. It was quite an honest reaction for us protective older siblings." He smirked up at her from his stool and she continued busying herself with the tea, glad that they had sorted that out.

Bain's voice carried over to them and he was saying that Tilda should get her doll to help him tell his story. A smile graced Sigrid's lips when Tilda leapt up to get her favorite doll. Fíli was straining to hear the breathless words his brother mumbled to the elf healer. Óin was wrapping a bandage around Bofur's head. And for a moment, everyone was almost content. But of course, as Sigrid thought back to the moment later on, their quiet peace couldn't last.

The ceiling shook, causing more dust and dirt to drift down. Everyone in the house froze. Until all of a sudden, the floor shook with enough intensity to make Tilda stumble as she walked back to Bain with her ragged doll. After regaining her footing, Tilda gripped it tightly to her chest. Sigrid abandoned the rattling kettle and rushed to her siblings, and Fíli leapt off his stool to his brother when the throttling of the household intensified. Óin quickly finished his administrations on Bofur's head and huddled them both into a more secure position.

Sigrid planted herself on the bed between her siblings and gathered Tilda in one arm and wrapped the other around Bain's taller shoulders as if the strength of her grip on each of them would keep them from harm.

She placed a worried kiss on the crown of Tilda's head and saw that Fíli had rushed over to his younger brother and jumped onto the table between Tauriel and Kíli, scattering the walnuts that pillowed Kíli's head. Tauriel hurriedly backed away, even though Sigrid could tell how much it meant to Tauriel to stay by Kíli's side and make sure he would be alright, Tauriel also knew that Fíli's need was greater.

And Sigrid realized with a jolt that she would probably never again have the opportunity to ask Tauriel about how she knew about their mother.

Sigrid wasn't able to follow the thought as an even greater rumbling filled the house and shook its foundations and inhabitants even more than before. Roaring filled their ears and the wind outside battered the sides like a hurricane. The dragon was coming.

Sigrid suddenly had the most ridiculous thought that one could have in their situation. To think that only just yesterday dwarves were coming out of their toilet and Tilda was wondering if they would bring them luck.

As Sigrid looked out of the window at the towering shadow looming closer and closer, she didn't believe there would be any luck coming from the dwarves.


End file.
